Weather and Traffic

Tuesday morning Palm Beach wind chill forecast: 19 degrees

That, according to the National Weather Service, is what it will feel like when you walk out your door early Tuesday morning in Palm Beach.

The cold front that crashed through South Florida Sunday night has the potential for producing epic cold readings. And because the system is accompanied by high winds, It’ll feel like more you’re standing on State Street in downtown Chicago in January rather than on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach in December.

Across the Intracoastal, parts of eastern West Palm Beach will feel like it’s 12 degrees in the very early morning hours. That’s colder than wind chills out in the Glades because although temperatures may be a degree or two warmer thanks to the proximity to the ocean, winds will be howling from the northwest as high as 26 mph.

The NWS is predicting a low of 28 degrees Tuesday morning in Palm Beach. That’s actual temperature. Over at Palm Beach International Airport, forecasters are calling for an almost unbelievable 23 degrees, which could challenge the all-time record low for West Palm Beach, not just for the date, but since records have been kept. (It hit 24 degrees on Dec. 29, 1894. The record low for Dec. 14 is 33.)

If this forecast comes even close to panning out, we could see phenomenal damage across the peninsula, not only of agricultural crops but nurseries and backyard gardens as well. Some very sensitive tropical plants don’t even tolerate sub-40-degree temperatures. And usually, even with record cold blasts, the Gulf Stream protects landscapes in Palm Beach.

A very gradual warm up begins Wednesday after a Palm Beach low of 38 degrees. Wednesday’s high should top out at 63, then back down to 57 as a low on Thursday morning.

There are freeze warnings, hard freeze warnings, and wind chill warnings all over South Florida for both Monday and Tuesday nights. I’ll spare you the grim details, but I think it’s sufficient to say that people could be talking about this freeze for a long time.

It’s worth noting, however, that Weather.com (The Weather Channel) has a forecast that is far less dire. It predicts 31 degrees for a low in both Palm Beach and West Palm Beach.

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The long-range forecast for Christmas day is out on AccuWeather. It calls for a sunny day with normal temperatures of 76 and 54 degrees. The private forecasting service doesn’t see any more arctic blasts through Dec. 28.